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architecture and design magazineTue, 03 Mar 2015 18:25:09 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1Architects slow to embrace augmented reality, says visualisation expert Andy Millnshttp://www.dezeen.com/2014/02/13/architects-slow-to-embrace-augmented-reality-says-visualisation-expert-andy-millns/
http://www.dezeen.com/2014/02/13/architects-slow-to-embrace-augmented-reality-says-visualisation-expert-andy-millns/#commentsThu, 13 Feb 2014 10:00:52 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=414240News: architects have been surprisingly slow to adopt augmented reality as a design tool, according to co-founder of visualisation studio Inition Andy Millns. Update: this interview is featured in Dezeen Book of Interviews, which is on sale now for £12. "At the moment there are very few architects using augmented reality day-in, day-out as part of their […]

"At the moment there are very few architects using augmented reality day-in, day-out as part of their design process," he told Dezeen in an interview for our MINI Frontiers project.

Augmented reality is a means of layering extra information that can change in real time over a view of the real world, often using a tablet device such as an iPad.

Although hyperrealistic computer-generated renders are now well-established tools in the architectural design process, the use of augmented reality is yet to catch on, said Millns.

"This is really because the [augmented reality] tools haven’t been tightly integrated into their design tools yet," said Millns.

He attributes the slow uptake of augmented reality within architecture studios to a disjunct between the modelling software used in their normal workflow and that required to produce augmented-reality models.

Most augmented reality activity is currently used for marketing and presentation purposes, said Millns.

"We’ve worked with many property developers on the marketing side to bring their properties to life using augmented reality," he explained. "You can look at a model and select what type of apartments you are interested in, and it will show you live data of which ones are still on the market."

]]>http://www.dezeen.com/2014/02/13/architects-slow-to-embrace-augmented-reality-says-visualisation-expert-andy-millns/feed/6Augmented reality devices "in your eye" will change how we see the worldhttp://www.dezeen.com/2014/02/05/movie-andy-millns-inition-augmented-reality-devices-in-your-eye/
http://www.dezeen.com/2014/02/05/movie-andy-millns-inition-augmented-reality-devices-in-your-eye/#commentsWed, 05 Feb 2014 14:39:50 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=413692Dezeen and MINI Frontiers: augmented reality technology will revolutionise the way we navigate cities, says Andy Millns of 3D production company Inition in the second part of our interview. Augmented reality devices that are tiny enough to "sit in your eye" will soon add layers of digital information over the real world, says Millns. Users will be able […]

Augmented reality devices that are tiny enough to "sit in your eye" will soon add layers of digital information over the real world, says Millns.

Users will be able to see whole cities with information layered on top of them via tiny devices placed in the eye, completely changing their urban experience, he claims.

"When we can track natural features in the city we can [then] bring in all sorts of information layered on to the urban view." This could include information related to travel, shopping, the proximity of friends and so on.

This augmented reality app in an iPad tracks the printed pattern on the podium to generate a 3D architectural model

The adoption of this technology will be helped by the second major development Millns predicts.

This tracking method limits augmented reality to fairly rudimentary usages – but not for long.

One of Zaha Hadid Architects' models tracked by an augmented reality app

"In the future we won’t need [to use] two-dimensional specific markers, the augmented reality app will just track the natural environment", he says.

Couple this with more sophisticated viewing technologies, and the use of augmented reality will soar, Millns claims: "When we have devices that just sit in your eye and it’s not obvious you are wearing them – that's when augmented reality will really take off."

Augmented reality rendering of Zaha Hadid Architects' model

Today's augmented reality relies on an intermediary device such as a smartphone or tablet, on which the user sees an "augmented" version of the world.

“One example of using augmented reality that people might be familiar with is using a tablet,” says Millns. "We use a live image via the camera and we layer on objects to make them appear as if they are really there."

The augmented reality Dezeen Watch Store pop-up allows customers to virtually try on a range of watches. By wrapping a paper "marker" around their wrist and looking at a screen, customers can see the watches modelled on their wrists in real time.

Customers can also explore an augmented reality scale model of Zaha Hadid Architects’ 90-metre Jazz superyacht using a tablet computer.

By pointing an iPad at a printed marker resting on a platform, they can view and walk round the yacht as if it was really there.

Augmented reality models are used for medical research and teaching

Based in Shoreditch, east London, Inition specialises in using new technologies such as virtual and augmented reality to create a range of experiences and installations.

Inition has built augmented reality models for several developers to help promote their buildings as well as architects, including Zaha Hadid for whom they developed a model which explored the effects of different airflows and lighting on the building.

]]>http://www.dezeen.com/2014/02/05/movie-andy-millns-inition-augmented-reality-devices-in-your-eye/feed/1Advances in virtual reality will "blur the line between what's virtual and what's real"http://www.dezeen.com/2014/02/04/movie-andy-millns-inition-virtual-reality-technology-oculus-rift/
http://www.dezeen.com/2014/02/04/movie-andy-millns-inition-virtual-reality-technology-oculus-rift/#commentsTue, 04 Feb 2014 13:59:27 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=413036Dezeen and MINI Frontiers: in our first movie looking at the interface between design and technology, Andy Millns of 3D production company Inition claims virtual reality will soon become almost indistinguishable from the real world. Based in Shoreditch, east London, Inition specialises in using new technologies such as virtual reality to create a range of […]

]]>Dezeen and MINI Frontiers: in our first movie looking at the interface between design and technology, Andy Millns of 3D production company Inition claims virtual reality will soon become almost indistinguishable from the real world. Andy Millns of Inition. Copyright: Dezeen

Based in Shoreditch, east London, Inition specialises in using new technologies such as virtual reality to create a range of experiences and installations.

"Virtual reality was the technology that set me off on this career path in the first place," says Millns. "I was absolutely obsessed with virtual reality in the early nineties; now it's very exciting that the hardware has finally got to the point where the experience matches people's expectations."

The studio has been working with the developer version of Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset that was announced on crowd-funding website Kickstarter in 2012. The consumer version is currently in development and expected to launch this year.

"Oculus Rift has been sort of the poster child for virtual reality," says Millns, before going on to explain how straightforward the device is. "What you've got essentially is a seven-inch mobile phone-type screen and two lenses. It's that simple."

The developer version of Oculus Rift has a very low-resolution screen, but with the pixel density of mobile phone screens rapidly increasing, Millns says it won't be long before virtual reality becomes as life-like as the real world.

"We're going to see this year a headset where it's starting to get quite difficult to distinguish whether you're actually wearing a headset or not," he says. "When we start to get super-high-resolution headsets with the type of display technology that we're seeing on the market now, it's going to blur the line between what is reality and what is virtual."

]]>http://www.dezeen.com/2014/02/04/movie-andy-millns-inition-virtual-reality-technology-oculus-rift/feed/8"Cyborg scenario" will see computers in the brain replace wearable techhttp://www.dezeen.com/2014/01/17/cyborg-scenario-will-see-computers-in-the-brain-replace-wearable-tech/
http://www.dezeen.com/2014/01/17/cyborg-scenario-will-see-computers-in-the-brain-replace-wearable-tech/#commentsFri, 17 Jan 2014 12:25:39 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=406625News: surgically implanted chips that feed digital information directly into the brain will supersede wearable technology, according to the co-founder of a leading 3D imaging studio. WiFi-enabled chips mounted inside the skull will be more effective than today's devices such as virtual reality headsets and Google Glass, according to Andy Millns, co-founder of London studio Inition. […]

News:surgically implanted chips that feed digital information directly into the brain will supersede wearable technology, according to the co-founder of a leading 3D imaging studio.

WiFi-enabled chips mounted inside the skull will be more effective than today's devices such as virtual reality headsets and Google Glass, according to Andy Millns, co-founder of London studio Inition.

"A much more successful way of doing this would be to bypass the eye altogether and directly interface with the brain," Millns said in an interview with Dezeen. "We're already seeing things like this with cochlear implants [electronic hearing implants] on the hearing side."

Millns foresees a "cyborg scenario," whereby the human brain is enhanced with digital implants. "The next step would be to have a WiFi or Bluetooth-type interface to augment the processing capacity of your brain."

Existing virtual reality technology relies on the user wearing a headset, which displays an alternative digital world. These headsets will increasingly become so realistic that people will no longer be able to tell the difference between real and fictional landscapes, Millns said.

"The inevitable future of these things is the ability to have tighter and tighter integration between the display and the human till you end up with a cyborg scenario where you have something embedded inside your brain that has a direct interface to your visual cortex," he said.

While such technology is some way away, Millns believes that augmented reality headsets will soon get so sophisticated that wearers won't be able to tell if they're looking at real or digital imagery.

"We're going to get very close this year to a headset where it's starting to get very difficult to distinguish if you're actually wearing a headset or not," he said. "When we start to get very high resolution headsets, with the type of display technology that we're seeing on the market now, it's going to blur that line between the virtual and the real."

The forthcoming high-definition version of the Oculus Rift headset (pictured above), which was premiered at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, will represent a giant leap forward in virtual reality technology, Millns said.

The Oculus Rift headset features a stereoscopic screen that creates the illusion of depth, perspective and scale. Sensors mounted on the outside of the headset track the user's movement and move the digital imagery accordingly, allowing the user to explore virtual worlds.

Existing augmented reality technology requires a headset

Millns believes the technology will soon allow convincing "telepresence" whereby people feel they are at an event or in a location remote from where they actually are. "Virtual reality is so versatile," said Millns. "You can create a universe from scratch, it can be useful to immerse someone in whatever world you want."

Coupled with advances in 360-degree video cameras - which record in all directions simultaneously - the headsets could allow people remotely to attend events happening elsewhere, such as fashion shows.

"We can actually put thousands of people in a seat by the side of a catwalk and they can actually experience what it's like to be there," Millns said. "You can put someone in any position in the show and allow them to look around as if they were there."

Last year Inition developed an "augmented 3D printing" service for architects that allows them to visualise the inside of models of buildings, show the services and structure and show how the building will appear at different times of the day and night.

A video of the interview with Millns will be published on Dezeen soon.

"The Imagine Shop is an attempt to visualise the kind of products, services and shops we might have in the future," says Fairs.

Imagine Shop at Selfridges

The space on the ground floor of the department store contains all wall of 3D-printed products and clothing by Janne Kyttanen of 3D Systems, and even features a giant printed ping-pong table.

"The most exciting thing here is that we've worked with Inition, which is a 3D visualisation company, to show how augmented reality could be used in stores of the future," Fairs says.

Inition lead creative Alex Lambert

Inition lead creative Alex Lambert then talks about the augmented-reality projects that his company and Dezeen worked on for this event.

"Inition and Dezeen collaborated on two pieces of augmented reality," he says, "one for watches available at the Dezeen Watch Store and another for a £300 million superyacht designed by Zaha Hadid."

Augmented reality demonstration of Zaha Hadid's superyacht model

Lambert talks through the technology for the yacht models, which works using a tablet camera that picks up the code from patterned markers then displays the 3D model on screen.

"This type of augmented reality relies on a tablet," he explains. "You'll see a live video feed coming through the camera and once you point it at the marker the 3D model will appear."

Augmented reality demonstration of giant Zaha Hadid superyacht model

Two versions of the yacht are included in the shop: a miniature version and a full-size model that glides across the tablet screen.

"We've actually created the yacht in full scale," says Lambert. "It's a sunny blue ocean with a full-scale yacht sailing past, just to give people an idea of the scale of the superyacht."

Alex Lambert tries on designs at the virtual watch store

Using the same technology, shoppers can try on designs from Dezeen Watch Store at a virtual watch shop. Shoppers simply attach a band around their wrist and hold it up to a camera, then the chosen watch manifests over the band.

"We take one of these bespoke trackers... turn to the camera, get the marker in view and boom! The watch appears," Lambert describes.

Alex Lambert tries on designs at the virtual watch store

Inition added texture and shadows to the virtual watches to make them look as realistic as possible. Different models and colourways appear instantaneously around the wrist on screen as they are selected.

"Dezeen are very forward thinking in employing this technology, especially for watches," says Lambert. "In the future hopefully people will download the app, use a webcam or tablet and try on the watches at home before they purchase online."